Groups confirmed for ICC Champions Trophy England 2004

The ICC today confirmed the groupings for the ICC Champions Trophy 2004 with Pakistan in the same group as India.

Pakistan was in third position in the official ICC One-Day International (ODI) table going into today's match against New Zealand but defeat would have seen it drop to fourth place.

The victory means that Pakistan avoids a match-up with hosts England and will instead face India and Kenya in the 12-team tournament next September.

For the first time in the tournament's history, the seedings for the ICC Champions Trophy are based on the official ODI ratings with the cut-off date set for the end of today, 1 December 2003.

This means that England (5th in the table) will have an opportunity to avenge the recent ODI defeat to Sri Lanka (4th). They will also have a group match against Zimbabwe (9th) for the second ICC Champions Trophy in succession.

Also facing a rematch will be top seeds Australia, drawn with New Zealand as they were in the 2002 tournament. The third team in their group will be the winners of the forthcoming ICC Six Nations Challenge in the United Arab Emirates in February and March next year.

The fourth group will pit second seeds South Africa against West Indies and Bangladesh.

Confirmed groupings for the ICC Champions Trophy 2004 are as follows:

Matches in the ICC Champions Trophy 2004 will be played at The Oval, Edgbaston and Hampshire's Rose Bowl in England from 10 to 25 September.

The tournament schedule will be made available later this month.

The winners of each group will progress to straight knock-out semi-finals and a final. All matches in the tournament will have a reserve day to allow the games to be completed in the event of bad weather.

ICC One Day International Championship correct on 1 December 2003

Full predictions on potential outcomes of forthcoming ODI matches are available on the ICC website, www.icc.cricket.org

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